This article by Kathi Kearney points out the need to recognize the gifted early in life. It also discusses the lack of research and makes a strong case for more study of highly gifted infants. It offers a handful of references on high intelligence in the very young.

Just two weeks old, Daniel already was watching the faces of his parents intently when they spoke to him, trying to mimic the movement of their mouths. On a lark, Daniel's father showed him a box of crayons, held up the blue one, and said "Blue." To his utter astonishment, the baby clearly repeated, "Blue." By 11 months, he learned the scientific names of 30 dinosaurs in a toy set he had been given. At age two, his parents took him to an aquarium with a small pool where young children could touch marine animals. Daniel reached out, grabbed another child's wrist, and gently removed it from the pool, giving the child a lecture about respecting animals and not hurting them. Two years later, as he sat at the supper table eating a piece of chicken, he held up pieces of bone and tendon, asking his
mother what they were for. When he realized they were part of what made the animal move, he said, "I think I'm not going to eat this any more," and became a vegetarian.

Daniel's baby brother, only four hours old, responded to his mother's voice by lifting himself up off his chest and looking straight at her. The hospital nurse said she had never seen a newborn respond that way.

Daniel's parents were not "hothouse parents" trying to create some sort of superbaby. They were a young struggling couple. His mother was a full-time homemaker; his father, a blue-collar worker. Their children's advanced development was as much of a surprise to them as it was to others, and for a long time they did not fully understand what it meant. Daniel's mother says, "It didn't really occur to us what was happening - we'd never had a child before. We thought we were just a normal family." Until Daniel's mother took a course in gifted education on the way to her bachelor's degree, and encountered a list of characteristics of gifted children, she had no idea Daniel was gifted. By then he was 10 years old. Scoring beyond the norms of standardized tests, he went on to produce original creative work in writing, visual arts, and the natural sciences, and as an adult retains his deep concern for moral and ethical issues.

Information about highly gifted infants is often scattered, retrospective, and anecdotal, although Hollingworth (1926) provided detailed descriptions of the babyhood of five children above 180 IQ and Feldman (1986) explores the infant development of several prodigies. We know relatively little about highly gifted babies because, unlike developmentally delayed or mentally handicapped children, gifted infants seldom have been studied. We simply do not have adequate data about this population.

Despite the lack of research, parents, pediatricians, psychologists, and preschool teachers or babysitters already have access to important developmental information about highly gifted infants that will assist these children now and in the future. Parents can keep detailed baby books, journals, audiotapes of early language development, and work samples for all of their children. Families with older identified highly gifted siblings are especially encouraged to keep developmental records on a new baby.

Pediatricians can educate themselves on the characteristics of young, early support and access to resources for their families. Often the pediatrician is the first person to notice advanced development. Psychologists who evaluate young, highly gifted children should consider administering the Stanford-Binet (Form L-M). [See UOG, 4(4), pp. 1, 8-10.] In a study of 150 infants, Lewis and Michalson (1985) found that this measure administered at 36 months located many children later determined to be verbally and quantitatively gifted at the age of six.

Because they work with groups of infants and young children with a wide range of abilities, preschool teachers and babysitters sometimes notice advanced development before parents do. More than one highly gifted toddler has been referred for testing by his or her daycare teacher or sitter.

Neither the political nor fiscal climate supports research on highly gifted infants or intervention for these children and their families. Someday that priority may change. And when it does, such humble materials as a baby book, an audiotape of early language development or a two year old's work samples may provide essential information that will help many other families. In the mean time, families like Daniel's will continue to nurture highly gifted babies who grow to adulthood with unique abilities, experiences, and perspectives, the foundations of which were part of their developmental trajectory from the earliest moments of life.

This article is provided as a service of the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to supporting profoundly gifted young people 18 and under. To learn more about the Davidson Institute’s programs, please visit www.DavidsonGifted.org.

Comments

Contributed by: Parent on 12/11/2014My son mastered everything early. He is 18 months old and knows his alphabet, capital and lower case, in any sequence. He can give examples for about 15 of the letters (e.g., A for Apple) and counts to 20. He can also count backwards from 10. He knows his colors, shapes and most animals. He knows over 35 sight words (flash cards). He is also fascinated with cars and dinosaurs. He enjoys learning new things! We are young first-time parents who are trying to gadge wether he is gifted so we can prepare financially to place him in a Montessori school. What do you think?

Contributed by: Parent on 11/27/2014My son is a month and a half. He has held his head up since birth and has been able to roll over since he was three days old. I wish there was more information for parents of these remarkable children.

Contributed by: Parent on 12/5/2013My grandchild is 2 years old & can read all the children's name in her pre-school. She knows all shapes and can count to 12. Hmmm what do you think?? She is 26 months old.

Contributed by: Parent on 9/18/2013Our son started babbling at 4 weeks, reading at 6 mos, signing at 9 mos, adding at 11 mos and pointing out continents on the map at 15 mos old. He is currently 5 yrs old in the 3rd grade. His favorite hobby is to learn and discover new things. I wish there were more resource for younger gifted children.

Contributed by: Parent on 8/12/2013My son lifted his head off my chest to look up at me the day he was born. He held his head up without any help from me at 3 weeks old, rolled over and could do a mini push-up at 3 weeks old, started sitting up by himself at 3 months, held his own bottle by 3 months, started sleeping 9 hours straight at night at 3 months old. Now, at 4 months, he's starting to crawl and can pull himself up and stand holding onto something. All his toys are for ages 6-9 months. I am constantly criticized by people because I let him sit by himself and do things he shouldn't be able to do at his age.

Contributed by: Parent on 6/25/2013Can a baby still be considered gifted if they have not showed extra speech ability? My daughter is 4 months old and was able to put the dummy (pacifier) back into her mouth from day one. She has always shown great interest in the world, turning her head to see people come into the room from a week old. Was grabbing toys at 5 weeks. Under our doctors recommendation we have started her on solids. After the first spoonful she took hold of my hand and guides it to her mouth.
Yesterday it was raining and I had the clear plastic rain cover over her pram. At first she started to cry (she hates not being able to see where she is going and although it is clear it was obstructed by the rain). Within 20seconds she reached up to the narrow slot, designed so Mums can reach the baby without removing the sheet. With one hand on the top and the other underneath she opened the slot to look out and stopped crying. Soon her hands/arms became tired so she stopped. However, every time I spoke to her she repeated this in order to see me more clearly.
We have babbled conversations and she moves her lips when I repeat a word but had never said one. She will shriek and laugh along to songs and music. I wonder if she is not ahead with language as we live in a bilingual household? Or can she still be gifted and speak at a later date?
She has been able to role over both ways for many weeks. She is now sitting alone from a propped position but not from lying down? Also she is bored very easily. This is hard as she has always slept through the night but I find I have to play constantly through out the day.

Contributed by: Parent on 5/16/2013At 2 months, my son was saying the word "hello." At 3 months, he picked up his rattle looked at his feet and put it between them to shake. At 15 months I would make him large pyramids out of blocks and he would carefully push one block out at a time to see how many he could remove before the structure collapsed. He is now four years old. In the past few weeks he has asked me questions about human evolution and if words such as "please" are symbols. He collects words like some people collect stamps. He recently told my OB that the gas pains I've been having "could be Braxton Hicks contractions" a phrase he has heard me use once a month before. I am thankful for this website, as, like many of the parents commenting here, I wonder how to keep him engaged and motivated once he starts school.

Contributed by: Parent on 4/3/2013Our son was born two months ago and right away he recognized my voice at three days old. He would look at us straight when we talked to him and try to roll his tounge to make the words. Now he is two months old and he already calls mommy and nana. It's amazing, even though I should be used to that since we have a 6 years old daughter who is highly intelligent as well.

Contributed by: Other on 12/15/2012My grandson recognized our voice immediately after birth. He remembered the songs and music we played to him during pregancy. He started repeating his name at two months old, and since then has learned all the alphabet letters and all numbers up to 100 in English and Spanish. Now he is 20 months old and plays games on the iPad and counts the number from 0 to 20 forward and backward. This is amazing! He is not going to day care because I take care of him at home.

Contributed by: Parent on 9/18/2011Very good information; my baby was just a few days when she recognized her mother's voice and respond to her by moving his face towards her mother's face. she was only six months old when she said her first word "baba" (grandfather), and when she was just 17 months old, she could identify the entire English alphabet and pronounce it properly. Nowadays, at just 20 months, she is very brillient in drawing and can draw different faces.

Contributed by: Parent on 7/11/2010Great site! Charlie is 5 1/2 months old and baby number four. At eight weeks I started to introduce hand-signs to him in earnest. He started using hand-signs two days later. He has now used three signs at once a few times and has used at least 14 hand-signs appropriately at diffent times. He loves new knowledge and enjoys numbers and letters. We so grossly underestimate babies.

Contributed by: Parent on 6/11/2010My daughter arrived into the world as wide eyed as they come. She was visibly paying attention in her first few days of life. I thought this was normal. She began talking in full sentences around 10 months old. She would talk about vacations and things we did in past tense or she will say, "when I was a baby." She is now three and we are having a difficult time keeping up with her interest level. She is sounding out words and trying to match up the letters because she wants to learn to read. These articles are great to read because they help me understand her.

Contributed by: Parent on 11/29/2009This article is very helpful to new parents that are starting to realize that there baby is doing some remarkable things but can't discuss it with anyone for fear of being called crazy. I would not believe it myself had I not observed some of these same things in my son at birth. Who would believe that a newborn would have neck muscles developed well enough to turn and follow the nurse with his eyes as she entered the room speaking? She was stunned as my newborn son followed her to my side, and she declared, "Smart baby!" When I brought him home days later and told him I wanted him to see his new room, I recall being a little surprised that he seemed to be paying attention as I gave him the room tour. He looked straight at a red and black dog poster that hung on the wall. He just stared at it for a while, so since he was "all eyes and ears" I told him that's a doggy and he goes woof, woof. And I moved closer, and he was so wide eyed. At 3 or 4 days old, he started laughing (heartily) and smiled often. As a newborn, he would look straigh at you and make his lips into an "O" shape, almost as if trying to whistle or make a noise, perhaps trying to mimic speaking. One of his daycare providers once told me that my son is the smartest baby he had ever seen. As he grew bigger, I often got the sense that my son wanted and could learn more and more but I held back at times for fear of overdoing it. I still struggle with whether I should do more learning-oriented stuff with him or just let him play. By pulling back on the bookish stufff, I fear that I may have put him behind academically. Though, I sense that it won't matter much over the long-term given his abilities. He enters school next fall.

Contributed by: Parent on 10/28/2009Thanks for the resources cited here. I have an 18 month old who I am beginning to believe is gifted; now I'm beginning to realize that she has been showing signs since birth. She made direct eye contact at birth, would turn her head/body towards people's voices since birth, and began smiling socially at only 8 days old. Right now she knows almost every letter of the alphabet, most numbers 1-10, colors, shapes, and has a vocabulary of at least 150 words. She constantly wants to be read to and can sit and listen to quite a long story, and has been able to do that for months. I'm scrambling to find resources and ideas for her... and wondering how she's ever going to fit in to regular public education at this rate!!

Contributed by: Parent on 4/19/2009I may have gifted toddlers, and I would like to find out how to get them tested to find out for sure. I know I have many gifted traits, but, I have never been tested. I hate that I was overlooked in school. I want to give my kids everything I can. My daughter is 4 and draws dinosaurs almost all day long. She knows most of their names. She is learning the alphabet. We live in Tulsa, OK. I would like resources in this area...

Contributed by: Parent on 6/11/2008I would like to know what happened to these children since the article's publication. How were these children educated at school? Their social/emotional status? Any advice the parents could give? What worked and what didn't?

Contributed by: Parent on 12/25/2007Hi,
For other parent's of gifted children it is great to find an article like this, and the other parent's comments beneath it. My experience as a parent is not knowing the appropriate age to teach a certain topic. We intended to teach sign language to our baby, but waited until 9 months. This was too late she could already speak, and had no need to sign.
Now age 16 months she can speak two languages (English and Korean) about 40 words in each. Knows (i.e. can read and say the letters) both alphabets. Counts 1-9. And is learning the musical scale.
My hope is to provide her the opportunities to learn, at times that are appropriate for her. Quite a challenge.

Contributed by: Other on 11/3/2007My daughter has a 12-week old baby boy. She taught him to say "I love you" and he will repeat this several times clearly enough to understand. He likes to talk, and watches a person's mouth movements carefully. He knows Mama amd Mom. He has been tracking movement almost since he was born and is fascinated by patterns. He has been smiling since he was about two weeks old. My daughter said not to tell anyone these things because they will think we are crazy.

Contributed by: Parent on 5/28/2007I live in Jefferson County, and am very proud to be highly gifted. There are 5 students in my daughter's class of 15 who are highly gifted, but no one knows what to do with us. Hopefully this will change. I'm fighting really hard to change Ohio policy. We deserve a chance to become what we are meant to be. When not given a chance...this can lead to trouble. I'm not sure how many are in my son's class. My children have spoken since they were 3 months old.

Contributed by: on 7/2/2006My son has an IQ of 180 and my little girl has an IQ of 184, She read by 3 and he finished Mensa puzzle books (with almost perfect accuracy) by 11

Contributed by: Parent on 4/6/2005I agree there aren't enough studies on gifted babies. I know. I searched for anything I could find when at seven weeks old my son had a five word vocabulary! Had my father not heard it on the phone, I don't think anyone would have believed us. My son could say his ABCs and count to 20 by 14.5 months. He knew his state, city and street by 18 months and the President of the United States at 19 months (probably could have learned it earlier had we taught it). When I forget what it is I'm going to do sometimes (busy moms get a bit distracted), he is the one who tells me. This article is great because other than one message on a message board, I've never read anything else about a baby speaking early like our son.

Contributed by: Parent on 3/9/2004At the age of 2 weeks, my son's favorite thing to look at was an ABC wall hanging. My mom joked he was learning to read. She was right. At 18 months he knew his alphabet. By 2, he was reading.

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